In Canada and Australia, young men inspired by the bloody, apocalyptic vision of the Islamic State were thwarted in their efforts to join the battle in Syria, so they took up arms in their homelands, staging small attacks that drew widespread attention.
In London, Mohammed Emwazi was known for years to be sympathetic to the message of Islamic extremists, and by 2013 he had joined the militants on the Islamic State in Syria. Now he is better known as “Jihadi John,” the black-masked figure who has appeared in numerous beheading videos.
In stark contrast, two young men in New York who were similarly enthralled by the Islamic State’s vision and who the government claims wanted nothing more than to join the fight, were arrested before they could make it to the killing fields in the desert.
In all of these cases, the suspects were known to the authorities. But only in New York were the suspects arrested, accused of pledging support for the Islamic State and trying to leave the country.
As officials around the world grapple with the emerging security concerns posed by the Islamic State and its sympathizers, the New York case provides one of the first public examples of how officials in the United States are approaching the threat.
The decision to arrest the men highlights the evolving challenges confronting law enforcement as officials calculate whether and when to intervene in instances of what some have begun calling “known wolves.”
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“I suppose if you were completely confident in your ability to interdict people around the world, then you might let the plot mature a little further,” Mr. Schiff said. “But I don’t think we can have that confidence.”
In the end, officials said, deciding when to act is a judgment call.
On the surface, someone might not seem to have the means, methods or skills to pull off an attack. But if the goal is to attack a soft target to simply sow fear, the calculations by officials can change quickly.
“Nobody who ever got killed by a terrorist got killed by a terrorist who was not aspirational first,” the first official said. “Ask the dead guys.”
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